From Honey to Ashes color, 48 minutes
An intimate portrait of an indigenous Paraguayan community after contact with the developed world, and their efforts to chart a collective future in a context shaped by deforestation, NGO activity, anthropologists and evangelical Christianity. This film contributes to the visual anthropology of lowland South America by putting a human face to critical questions about contact, indigeneity and modernity.

The Last Kamikaze: Testimonials from WWII Suicide Pilots color, 55 minutes
This video explores the minds of former teenage suicide bombers who participated in the suicide operations during WW II. Now in their 70s and 80s, these individuals reflect upon their past and talk candidly about their lives, issues related to patriotism, propaganda, spirituality, and on-going turmoil in the Middle East.

The Last Rites of the Honourable Mr. Rai color, 47 minutes
A groundbreaking and in-depth study of a Hindu cremation that allows the viewer to actually experience and participate in a cremation ceremony along the Ganges River.

Today the Hawk Takes One Chick color, 72 minutes
Jane Gillooly’s film captures day-to-day life in a rural society on the threshold of simultaneous collapse and reinvention. The Lubombo region of Swaziland suffers from the world’s highest prevalence of HIV and the lowest life expectancy. This observational film is told from the poignant perspective of three grandmothers (gogos) who have become instrumental in defining a new world order in the fight against the spread of HIV. As the stakes of each day heighten, gogo Albertina asks: “What will happen when all the gogos are dead?”

Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) color, 73 minutes
Shot over a period of nine months and based on ethnographic survey methods, this film reveals the motives, aims and desires of modern Japanese people as they follow a Buddhist pilgrimage. Presenting the pilgrimage as a microcosm, Walking Pilgrims (Arukihenro) offers profound insights into the religious and socio-cultural background of modern Japanese society whilst at the same time pointing to the universal human quest for self-knowledge.

Deadline March 31, 2008

Working Films is seeking candidates with a demonstrated commitment to
social justice and an interest in the role of documentary filmmaking
and new technology for the George Stoney Fellowship. Candidates will be
assisted in conceptualization, writing and research on Working Films
campaigns. Regular responsibilities include sitting in as colleagues in
all development meetings between filmmakers, activists and other
Working Films staff, and traveling when necessary to rough-cut
screenings and community organizing meetings.
The fellowship is expected to last 8-10 weeks in the
Wilmington office, starting in May or June  2008. The Fellow will serve as
part-time, temporary staff, earning $10-15 an hour. For more
information about the work of  Working Films and how to apply,
please see www.workingfilms.org.

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The LEF Foundation is pleased to announce its support of a new film screening series, Facing Realities: Dialogues in Boston Documentary Filmmaking. Having recognized and supported documentary filmmaking in Boston for many years, this film series is part of a larger effort to highlight the history and deepen the understanding of Boston’s remarkable documentary tradition, which continues today.

The screening series begins on Saturday, March 22 at 12:30 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The intent of the series is to juxtapose important documentary films from different generations of Boston based filmmakers, thereby revealing the connections between the earliest innovators and filmmakers today. For the first screening, curator Peter Dowd has selected Forest of Bliss by Robert Gardner and Today the Hawk Takes One Chick, by Jane Gillolly.

A discussion between the filmmakers will be facilitated by film scholar Scott MacDonald, author of numerous books about experimental film, including the series A Critical Cinema: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. For complete details on this initial screening, please reference the attached flyer or visit the project’s website at www.filmandreality.org.

This screening series is part of a multi-platform effort, Film & Reality: Boston Documentary, being sponsored by LEF to shed new light on Boston’s documentary filmmaking tradition and its significant, yet under-recognized, contribution to the history of cinema and modern moving image culture. Through film screenings, critical writing and discourse, and filmmaking itself, this project highlights the work of area filmmakers who continue to explore the risk and friction that occur when film meets reality, and who produce highly original work that wrestles with the depiction of “truth” in our complex world.

Facing Realities: Dialogues in Boston Documentary Filmmaking
Saturday 22 March, 2008
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Remis Auditorium

12:30
Forest of Bliss by Robert Gardner, 1986, 90 min.

2:15
Today the Hawk Takes One Chick by Jane Gillooly, 2007, 72 min.

3:30
Discussion with Robert Gardner and Jane Gillooly led by film scholar Scott
MacDonald
For more information, please email info@facingreality.org